A Recued Horse's Tale (Day 39)

DAY 39: The Age of Squeeze, Cluck and Spank has dawned in Roscoe’s world! After we hauled the horses over to the arena we let them run off some freshness, tacked up and got to work. The sun is setting earlier now so time management is essential (until we get our season pass to the El Dorado County Fairgrounds arena…it’s covered and lit until 9:00pm). We reviewed groundwork and asked for three “wins” on each of the known exercises. We classified a “win” as a good try, probably a C+ to B- in the Clinton scale.

Flexing was les sticky and Roscoe is reading body language better as he applied more effort/energy to the exercises. A short breather and then we saddled up. First focus: GAS PEDAL (a challenge for Roscoe). Now, coordination of the “spanker” at the end of the mecate is not as easy as it looks! Monkey doing a math problem aptly describes the first several attempts at using it. There is also some trepidation as to how the horse will react to the use of the spanker when applied and getting control of the amount of pressure to use. Our first few starts were not good. Being effective and establishing a starting point was tough. Still we pushed on…squeeze, cluck (fumble, fumble, touch, tickle, tap) spank!

Eventually it got worked out and Roscoe moved out into the walk and the trot much better. We got several nice walk-trot transitions and lots of “big boy” walks with lots of energy/fluidity to them. Folks at the park must have though we were nuts with all the “good boy” and “awesome job” comments we were making rather enthusiastically. Squeezing and spanking lengthen the stride and kicking shortens it. This is a great thing to remember! When a kick was applied you could feel the rib cage and shoulders elevate…not the result we wanted for this exercise (but good to know for later).Trying not to steer during the Cruising lesson was tough! We had to remember to only apply a direction cue when he got too close to the rail or tried to stop at the gate. The other time a direction cue was applied was when, for physical development reasons, we needed him to work on his right side (he favors going to the left). Trying to maintain good leg position and a centered seat during this exercise is not easy! Because the horse is not being “guided” and the fact that the rider is just focusing on the horse…while adapting to his direction changes, holding the reins loose, squeezing, clucking and trying to coordinate the “spanker” when needed…it can get a little unbalanced at times. However once the exercise is done for a short period everything begins to gel and get in harmony and it feels comfortable. Roscoe’s breaks are great. He listens to the seat and it is hard to actually complete a One Rein Stop. Still, it is a skill we want him to understand so we’ll be focusing more on that too. Roscoe’s ability to back up on the ground using all four methods as been improving and now, with the new bit, we wanted to see if we could get less fuss about backing under saddle. We’ve practiced on the ground first by simply standing at the stirrup, facing his nose and picking up the reins to a point of contact with his mouth and gently with a 1-2-3-4 rhythm (alternating sides of his mouth) ask him to back up a step. He takes a step and gets a fast release and lots of praise. We have gone as far as eight steps on the ground with almost no fuss. So, time to test the translation of groundwork to respect under saddle…and he did great! He actually tucked his nose a bit, shifted his weight backwards and moved back nicely. Not the perfect back up by any means by it was light, soft and responsive. Lots of praise and love was applied.

We wanted to end the ride part of the training with some big figure 8’s. Roscoe got better about listening to the leg cues and even let it slip that he can “read” a seat cue a little bit.

So, we’ll be exaggerating to teach and then refine the skills. It was a day of more wins than challenges for Roscoe. We quit on a good note, hung out watching Laurie and Argent work and even took a nice slow walk around the park (leading beside) to wrap up the session. NOTE: Roscoe has spots! As the condition of his coat improves we’ve noticed these marking more clearly. Theses are very dark brown in color and are all over his coat. We seen certain bloodlines of Quarter Horses that have this…more research is in order!